Susan Dey

If ever a new series seemed virtually assured of commercial success, it's "Love & War," bequeathed a 9:30 p.m. hammock between "Murphy Brown" and "Nothern Exposure" on a night that CBS is expected to dominate. As a bonus, this urbane and amusing comedy from Diane English ("Murphy Brown") appears to justify its gift time slot, based on a special premiere (at 10 tonight on Channels 2 and 8) that crackles with tart, smart dialogue ("Your condom or mine?"

Before he was was an actor, Anthony Denison was a lot of other things. "I had all these different professions paying my way through college," says the New York native, who opens this weekend in Israel Horovitz's 1971 off-off-Broadway hit "Line" at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. "I was a newspaper editor, a stonemason. I promoted chess and backgammon tournaments, worked in construction, sold insurance and was a bookie--until a Lakers-Knicks game wiped me out one night."

The grimy derelict who shows up on a well-to-do doctor's doorstep is no stranger; he's the doctor's estranged older brother, bringing a lifetime of painful memories. So begins "Blue River," a fitfully interesting movie on Fox tonight. Based on Ethan Canin's novel, most of the film is a journey into the past, exploring the escalating events that culminated in a series of arson fires and the suicide of a disturbed teen-ager, driving the two brothers apart.

Do we really care about our children? Tune in Sunday to KTLA's stunning dissection of the foster care crisis in Southern California before you answer. "What Are We Doing to Our Children?," hosted by Susan Dey ("L.A. Law") at 8 p.m. on Channel 5, offers a stunning indictment of a grossly unwieldy bureaucratic system that often victimizes victims, joining the abuse cycle. Viewers go with police officers in investigations of child abuse.

The executive producers of the TV movie "I Love You Perfect," airing Sunday at 9 p.m. on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42, have been quoted as saying that it's "not just another 'cancer sto" It's meant to be the true story of great love in the face of great tragedy. What it is, from minute one, is a paperback romance with sappy music and commercials. Susan Dey (of NBC's "L.A. Law") and Anthony John Denison (CBS' "Wiseguy") are star-crossed lovers Christina Taylor and Alan Matthews.

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CBS, NBC and ABC each have shows in the running for a Golden Globe award as TV's best dramatic series. CBS' "Beauty and the Beast" and "Murder, She Wrote," NBC's "L.A. Law," "St. Elsewhere" and "A Year in the Life" and ABC's "thirtysomething" were listed as nominees for best TV series-drama in the TV nominations issued this week by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. The TV winners will be announced Jan. 23 along with winners in motion picture categories (previously reported).

You may not quite grasp just how quickly ABC's topical TV movie "Whose Child Is This? The War for Baby Jessica" was turned around until the last scenes, one of which has a character ripping a page off the calendar to reveal the month of August. As in last month. As in perspective being a lost virtue in the age of docudrama-cum-Insta-Drama. So "Baby Jessica" (Sunday night at 9 on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42) may win this month's Speed Racer award, but hold the Emmys.